Joseph Kennedy, 84, got fired in 1980 for reading the Bible and teaching creationism at Spring Garden Elementary School when parents of the public school sixth-grade students objected and he refused to stop.

But he said he still has a dream of teaching public school students about creationism, so he asked his legislator to help him encourage the Etowah County School Board to offer "release-time" classes, in which public high school students could go off campus to study creationism and get an elective credit for it.

A bill introduced in the Alabama Legislature has proposed allowing churches or ministries to teach a religion class off campus, if parents and school boards give permission and the churches are willing to be responsible for transporting and teaching students and covering any expenses.

Rep. Blaine Galliher, R-Rainbow City, said he introduced the bill at the request of Kennedy, a member of his district.

"This is legislation that has been adopted in several states: Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Idaho, just like this," said Galliher, sponsor of House Bill 133 and chairman of the agenda-setting House Rules Committee. He said he modeled the bill after laws in other states. "It's already been litigated all the way through the court system, so it's constitutional."

Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin, R-Indian Springs, said Galliher's bill would be debated the week of Feb. 28 in the House of Representatives' Education Policy Committee, which she chairs.

"It looks like it's a very viable way to offer some elective courses for kids that have many opportunities for electives," McClurkin said. "To me, this would be a real good one, to be able to study religion."

Kennedy, a member of Southside Baptist Church near Gadsden, said he and his supporters have formed a board of directors for the Institute for Biblical Studies, which would offer a creationism class if a released-time class law were passed.

"Anyone challenging it in court will argue the motivation for it was religious," said former Samford University professor Thomas Berg, now constitutional law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. "A court is probably going to look at that suspiciously. There is a certain suspicion in the courts of Alabama legislators trying to promote religion."

Kennedy, who was a principal at Hardin Elementary School in Centre in Cherokee County during the 1970s, said he has a doctorate in Christian education from Freedom Seminary in Jacksonville, Fla., and is qualified to teach the classes. He also has a master's degree in school administration from the University of Alabama and has written 15 books, seven on creationism, he said.

"We'll have to raise all the money," Kennedy said. "All the school board needs to do is set it up. They can give the students credit. We're going to major on creation science. Since creation involved science, then certainly we can study it. We want to give students good sound scientific reasons to support their faith in the seven-day creation and the young Earth. For example, there is no delta to the Colorado River, which is evidence that it was washed out after the flood."

Kennedy said he approached the Etowah School Board about his ideas. "First I asked if I could teach creation at Southside High School," he said. "Then I asked the Etowah School Board to lift their ban on release-time schools so we could set one up."

The U.S. Supreme Court, in the 1952 Zorach v. Clauson case involving a New York law allowing release-time from school for religious instruction, upheld the classes because the religion teaching was not done on public property or at public expense. "If a statute is truly neutral in its terms, if they've modeled it on that, that's a point in its favor," said Berg.

In the 1948 McCollum v. the Board of Education decision, the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down a similar release-time law in Illinois because the school was too involved in the administration of the class.

Even giving elective credit could be considered too much involvement by the school, Berg said.

"The school is encouraging taking the class by offering credit for it," Berg said. "Is the religious teacher going to certify that the student passed? Would the school do any review of that? Would they monitor the class for quality to ensure it would warrant a public school credit? All those things would entangle the school."

Kennedy said he hopes the bill becomes law so he can begin teaching creationism to public school students as soon as possible.

"We need a school bus and we need a building and textbooks," Kennedy said. "The textbook will be 'The Defender Study Bible,' with notes by Henry Morris, author of 'The Genesis Flood,' who started the creationist movement."

News staff writer David White contributed to this report. Join the conversation by clicking to comment or email Garrison at ggarrison@bhamnews.com.